American Culture Studies is launching several new Program Initiatives:
three- to five-year endeavors centered on themes that bring
interested faculty members together across disciplinary boundaries...
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As part and parcel to American Culture Studies’ continued efforts to bring the vibrancy of our community to the web,
the Media Archive will include a growing body of audio and visual material. Culled from interviews with visiting scholars, recordings
of AMCS events hosted throughout the semester, and features from program initiatives, the Media Archive rounds out amcs.wustl’s
digital presence. Our aim is to offer site visitors a way to hear and see community inquire about and debate issues critical to American Life.

The American Culture Studies (AMCS) Program invites informal proposals from Washington University in St. Louis graduate students, or from faculty on behalf of graduate students, concerning research or research-related projects eligible for funding under the Zimmer and Veninga-Zaricor “Birds of Passage” Graduate Research Fellows Program.

These fellowships are intended for Washington University in St. Louis graduate students doing applied research related to social and economic problems or community engagement in the metropolitan St. Louis area. Fellowship support is intended to allow for the development and implementation of projects designed by graduate students. We especially encourage projects that also involve undergraduate student participation of some sort.

Please submit the following documents: a brief description (1-page, double-spaced) of your graduate studies, an approximately two-page (double-spaced) description of the intended research project, and a detailed budget. Past recipients have received funding for between $10,000 and $15,000, although the exact amount of the grant that we will consider funding is flexible. We anticipate that student interest might come from students in the AMCS Graduate Certificate program, but this is not a requirement, and we are receptive to applications from all schools and departments, including applicants from graduate programs across Arts & Sciences and the School of Architecture and School of Social Work.

The range of topics, focus areas, and projects that are applicable for the Birds of Passage Fellowship is diverse and inclusive. The proposed project must involve research and/or teaching on topics that center on the St. Louis region. Fellows will be expected to present their research findings at an AMCS Workshop at or near the end of their fellowship tenure

This fellowship program is administered by a committee from the American Culture Studies Program. Since the inauguration of the program, there have been four previous award winners:

• In 2008, Suzanne Pritzker, a Harvey Fellow in AMCS and a Ph.D. student in the School of Social Work, undertook a project designing and teaching of a new course, “Citizenship and Public Service,” which included a service-learning component. This course linked the focus of Dr. Pritzker’s dissertation research with engagement within the local community.

• In 2011, Michelle Repice undertook “The St. Louis Violence and Literacy Project,” a cultural mapping project that involved undergraduates in an original AMCS-based course.

• In 2013, Sarah Sobonya undertook a fieldwork-based, anthropological project, “The Commodification of Breastfeeding: Race, Class, and the Production of Moral Motherhood,” which culminated in the completion of her dissertation.

• The incumbent Fellow, Rachel Voth Schrag, will present her research on “Intimate Partner Violence, Economic Abuse, and the Outcomes of Women attending Community College” before completing her dissertation in the Spring 2017.